Gretchen Wilson says Grammy-nominated tune was an afterthought

Gretchen Wilson is especially appreciative of afterthoughts these days, because that’s what she said her Grammy-nominated song “I’d Love to Be Your Last” was: a last-minute addition to her 2010 album I Got Your Country Right Here.

“It wasn’t originally on the album,” she said. “We listened to the mastered version of the record and we thought it was missing something.”

Wilson remembered the song, a ballad Rivers Rutherford had played for her during a writing session on her tour bus one night, and said at the time it moved her so much she had him play it again so she could record it. She carried around the rough copy of “I’d Love to Be Your Last” for years, and when the opportunity to record it arose, she took it.

“I decided, ‘Hey, let’s put this at the end, right after we come out of that screaming slamming song (‘As Far As You Know’),’” she said. “(I thought), '‘Let’s just shock them with something like this.’ ”

Wilson couldn’t be happier with the result.

“It’s an acoustic (guitar) and a vocal and we put one cello part on it later,” she said of the simple recording. “I believed the lyric was all it took to make that song. It just tickled me pink to know that the lyric carried it all the way to a Grammy nomination. It didn’t have to be dazzling, and it didn’t have to have a bunch of reverb or 400 tracks on it or spend 12 weeks at No. 1 at radio. It didn’t even have to be released as a single. It just amazes me. I’m just so shocked and overwhelmed.”

Wilson finds out the status of that Grammy nomination on Sunday, Feb. 13, when the awards show airs live on CBS starting at 7 p.m. Central.